Specification for the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions of a city
With the recognition that cities play a key role in tackling climate change, measuring greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) allows cities to assess risks and opportunities, create meaningful strategy to reduce GHG emissions and track progress on climate change.
Many cities around the world are already assessing their climate change impacts, however current methodologies vary in scope and approach. A greater level of consistency is required to inform meaningful effort on climate change and make comparisons between cities easier.
The newly published PAS 2070 responds to this challenge by outlining a comprehensive approach to the assessment of GHG emissions of a city or urban area. It captures both direct and indirect GHG emissions and encourages greater disclosure and better benchmarking. This helps decision makers identify key emission sources and their drivers, the carbon dependence of their economy and opportunities for more efficient supply chains.
The availability of a consensus-based tool such as PAS 2070 will enable cities internationally to act and respond together to climate change which continues to be one of the major environmental, and economic challenges today.
PAS 2070 aims to provide a robust and transparent method for consistent, comparable and relevant quantification, attribution and reporting of city-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This will encourage more holistic GHG assessments, greater disclosure and more meaningful benchmarking to help city decision makers identify key emission sources and their drivers, the carbon dependence of their economy, and opportunities for more efficient urban supply chains.
It is intended for international application. It can be used by organizations or individuals assessing GHG emissions of a city or an urban area, such as municipal or national governments, academic researchers, consultants, and others.
PAS 2070 is available for a free download following an initial registration from the British Standards Institution (BSI) web-site at http://bit.ly/1eQt1nZ